Youngest round Britain

Katie McCabe caught the sailing bug young. Her father Dave is a boatbuilder based in Topsham, Devon, who has restored several boats, including a Herreshoff, a Chris Craft and a Riva motorboat. In 2000, he and his partner Hazel (herself a woodcarver) bought the 54ft (16.5m) trawler Ros Ailither, which they converted into a liveaboard ketch and sailed to the Caribbean. Katie was just 14 months old and, as she puts it, “learned to walk while sailing across the Atlantic”.

Further adventures followed, including a cruise to Morocco and the Canary Islands when